UK school system failing

The stress, pressure and unhappiness of the UK’s school children has not ‘paid off’ in success.

The UK schooling system is failing on many levels. In the latest PISA ratings, run by the OECD and based on tests taken by 15 year olds across the world the UK is a long way from the top. The UK is ranked 27th in maths – the lowest we have been ranked since joining the tests in 2000 – has made a slight improvement in our ranking in science (although not in test score) climbing to 15th place and is ranked 22nd in reading.

“There are still too many 11-year-olds struggling to read, write or add up properly”

Nicky Morgan, former Education Secretary

It isn’t only when measured against other countries that we are failing. In secondary schools over 40% of students are not achieving the baseline standards, 44% of students leave without gaining at least five GCSEs grade A* to C.

By the end of primary 43% of children have not reached adequate levels of reading, writing and maths according to reports from CentreForum and research body Education DataLab. And a fifth of children leaving primary school haven’t even reached the accepted standard in at least one of the core subjects.

That’s a quite remarkable failure rate given the hours and years that these children have poured into these topics. Perhaps it is time to admit that the system itself is broken?